for a grant from the Solicitor’s Guarantee Fund surplus. The Society will oversee a scheme to assist fi rms to employ graduates in regional Tasmania through salary supplementation. The scheme provides grants to fi rms of up to 50 per cent of the cost of employment to a maximum level per year, for three years. The Legal Aid Commission of Tasmania was successful in its application to provide a similar scheme. It is anticipated that the schemes will lead to the employment of eight practitioners and will, in a practical and eff ective way assist the profession to recruit and retain suitable staff in regional areas and directly improve access to justice for the communities in which those practitioners will live and work.
The RAP is one the LIV’s major initiatives for 2012, although we intend it to be a living document well into the future. We will continue to promote it and review it and encourage the legal profession to show leadership in promoting Indigenous causes and addressing Indigenous recognition and opportunity. As lawyers we support and promote equality before the law and throughout our society.
The LIV has long advocated indigenous equality. In 2006, the LIV developed a policy statement on indigenous Australians in the legal profession and the justice system.
Two years later, then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd delivered a national apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians as well as to members of the Stolen Generations. The apology acknowledged past wrongs and committed to bridging the gap between indigenous Australians and the broader community. The Apology was regarded as the fundamental early step in the reconciliation process.
The Law Institute of Victoria [LIV] has launched a Reconciliation Action Plan [RAP].
It was a long time coming and I was honored to be the LIV President charged with the privilege of launching our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander RAP on 4 September 2012.
Indigenous equality is the ultimate aim of this RAP. It seeks to turn good intentions into actions and is a fi rst step towards a legal profession that properly represents Aboriginal perspectives in Victoria. It aims for appropriate representation of Aboriginal people in the ranks of the legal profession. At the moment we don’t have that – not among solicitors, barristers or the judiciary.
In 2010, the LIV announced its intention to launch a RAP. It recognised that as Victoria’s peak legal body, we had the opportunity to raise consciousness and infl uence change. The announcement that we intended to launch a RAP received wide support from the legal profession. A number of our member fi rms have already developed their own RAP, and for that they should be congratulated.
The LIV held consultations with indigenous people in Victoria, including traditional owners, peak bodies, community groups, education bodies and government. We will continue to work together with these groups.
The LIV RAP identifi ed distinct reconciliation pathways including education to qualifi cation, access to justice and cultural awareness. Following these pathways, a reconciliation framework was developed.
The RAP requires increased and ongoing involvement by the LIV and indigenous people and indigenous organisations:- in LIV RAP activities, committees and actions. In the fi rst year, the LIV has committed to
achieving more than 50 actions that work towards meeting 20 objectives set out in the pathways. They include actions relating to law reform, community partnerships and employment.
The initiatives in the RAP are designed to be practical. Many are internal to the LIV but many are initiatives that lawyers and law fi rms can incorporate into their own activities. We encourage them to consider which reconciliation activities they can participate in.
For example:
• providing Indigenous clerkship positions or work experience opportunities for Indigenous high school students;
• volunteering to speak at local community legal education events;
• investigating what Indigenous businesses we can engage as suppliers;
• taking a Board member position for a local Indigenous organisation seeking legal expertise;
• attending cultural awareness training to be developed through the LIV’s CPD program; and
• briefi ng one of Victoria’s Indigenous barristers and committing to the LIV/Victorian Bar Indigenous Barristers Equal Opportunity Briefi ng Policy [see the directory page on the Vic Bar website].
I believe lawyers are, and must be, leaders in the community. We have an obligation to promote human rights and equality before the law and are uniquely placed to do this.
I hope that this positive step by the LIV encourages more law fi rms to launch their own RAPs. The LIV RAP will also be available to fi rms who may not have the resources to establish their own RAP but who are interested in contributing to the reconciliation process.
Attracting the attention of the legal profession, fi rms or organisations and encouraging them to act will be an achievement for the LIV RAP.
Those instrumental in developing this RAP include the co-chairs of the RAP working group, barristers Abigail Burchill and Richard Wilson,
49
VICTORIA
Michael Holcroft, President, Law Institute of Victoria
MAR–MAY 2012
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